Don Anderson

I have lived in Barron Park for 27 years, and I’ve come to know the residents of the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park in our neighborhood as hardworking people who know and care about each other and the neighborhood, and who are important constituents of Barron Park. I’m very concerned about the possibility that residents of Buena Vista will be dispossessed of the homes they own, their children’s schools, their extended families and community, and their livelihoods if they are forced to leave the area in search of affordable housing.

Closing Buena Vista would mean the loss of 108 units of affordable housing with no plan for replacement. This loss would affect not only the Buena Vista residents but our entire city. Where are the people we depend on to provide services, to staff our restaurants and shops, supposed to live? Do we really want a city where everyone who works here has to commute from a distance, causing us ever more traffic congestion and parking problems? In a city inhabited by several billionaires and many multimillionaires, a city which is projecting a tax income bonanza in the years ahead, can we not find a way to preserve this longstanding community in our midst instead of “scraping” it and replacing it with luxury apartments?